Monday, December 15, 2014

So hard to focus on weather when there is a drama unfolding on the other side of the world in Sydney where a seemingly lone gunman has held up to 40 people hostage as well as their main financial district. It's as if someone stormed a Starbucks or Ghiradelli chocolate store on Wall Street in NYC.

There have been deaths, many escaped. The facts are still coming out as this is going on live as I am writing this article. At least 2 people have been killed (one the terrorist, one a hostage) and I write this with prayers for all those who are in the hospital being treated and the families of the people held hostage. We were all held hostage in ways by this brutal 'lone wolf" attack of a Isis sympathizer.

Amazing how the horrific acts of one man can create so much evil.

Compare and contrast how the good acts of one man can create so much good.

Sounds simple but true.

And, awes me sometimes how the word "storm" is a verb more than a noun at times.

As I said the other day "hurricane" refers to the speed of wind to sailors.. not just A Hurricane with a name traveling across the globe.

And, news travels across the globe these days at light speed or faster. I watched Skynews last night when CNN and FOX were showing taped segments about health, dinosaurs and old trials no one cares about anymore.

http://news.sky.com/interactive/1345361/watch-sky-news-live

The world is very small and we no longer can feel "safe" here in America with an ocean dividing us from Europe and Asia as we learned so graphically during the 911 attacks. For good or for bad however you wish you view it we are one world. People travel and politics travels across the Internet. Sydney has had problems in the last several months with girls running off to Syria to join Isis.. something that is hard to wrap your head around but it has happened in England, Minnesota.. Detroit.. anywhere that some lost child is fair game for someone online who is trying to brainwash a weak, lost soul.

ISIS leaders have gone online and begged people who believe what they believe to take upon themselves lone actions against "Western" targets and I mean that broadly. This is not about Jews as targets or Israel but Christians or anyone (including atheists) who do not believe what they believe.

It's not about whether someone is "crazy" or a "lone wolf" it's about the spread of terror with one commonality behind it being incited by one broad group of people.

"Self-radicalization"

The Boston Marathon Massacre was a lone wolf who enlisted the one person he trusted more than anyone ... his younger brother. And, the younger brother ran away and hid in a boat, scared and arrested. Guilty yes, an accomplice... yes... but his brother was basically a lone wolf who pulled the younger one in... in the same way lost kids online are being pulled in to what they think is a heroic cause or just with a rebel without a real cause mentality. Hard to understand for most of us..

Whether it is a lone wolf or 19 hijackers in a carefully, choreographed plan to bring down jetliners.. the bottom line remains the same...........it is terrorism.

The goal of terrorism is to spread fear.......scare..........terrorize.... control people and scare them into behaving a certain way. It's a power game.

I don't want to hear about "mental illness" as only a crazy person ... be they someone with a mental illness or an irrational hatred they believe in... commits these sorts of crimes. Normal people, even those with mucho anger have that little voice inside that says "no stop you can't do that" but many who ware controlled by HATE try to control, intimidate others often under the guise of a political reason... or a "belief" that's just the way the world works and to pretend otherwise is to deny reality.

They said OSWALD was crazy... but he still killed JFK.

The man who killed John Lennon was "crazy" as was the man who tried to kill President Reagan.

Was Osama Bin Laden crazy....or crazy like a fox or did it matter as the ultimate end game was to terrorize those who did not believe the way he believed.

So.............getting off the soap box here, but there is a storm going on today and that storm is sadly a violent one of the human kind in Sydney in the same way there was a larger choreographed attack six years ago in Mumbai India.

Again, it's easier to pull off a lone wolf attack than there is a planned out attack and that is the kind that is being promoted online at many social media outlets that I will not mention. Just know it's there, it's scarier and it's way scarier than worrying on a severe weather alert or a hurricane forming somewhere headed west bound towards the Outer Banks.

I'd rather watch Mother Nature on the rampage any day than this sort of terrorism.

Speaking of weather........

There is talk of a winter storm later this week in parts of the East Coast. Many are hyping it, many are being very conservative with a wait and see attitude. The Capital Gang at the Washington Post are not the type to hype as much as tell it like it is....if there is a reason to worry.

One of those mixed bags, surprise bag forecasts for now. I'll be on top of this later in the week as it becomes clearer what sort of precipitation we have and how many P-Type issues some places could see... P-Type means possible snow, ice... etc in the same way we say a storm may go left vs NW towards Florida... when doing hurricane forecasts.

From Raleigh NWS Discussion...
WHETHER THERE WILL BE ANY P-TYPE OR SEVERE WEATHER CONCERNS WILL LARGELY DEPEND ON THE POSITION AND TIMING OF THE LOW AS IT PROGRESSES INTO THE REGION. GIVEN THE DIFFERENCES...UNCERTAINTY...AND LOW CONFIDENCE NOTED ABOVE...WILL REFRAIN FROM GOING THROUGH EVERY POSSIBLE SCENARIO AND JUST NOTE TWO THINGS. FIRST...ANY P-TYPE CONCERNS WOULD BE LIMITED TO THE FAR NORTH AND WEST EARLY SATURDAY MORNING AT THE ONSET OF PRECIP...ALTHOUGH FOR NOW KEEP TEMPS JUST ABOVE FREEZING AND THE PRECIP LIQUID. SECOND...IF THERE IS A THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER...IT
WOULD LARGELY BE LIMITED TO THE FAR SOUTHEAST...BUT FOR NOW MENTION
OF THUNDER IS LEFT OUT OF THE FORECAST.

For now it's sunny, cool and beautiful and I need to get presents in the mail because Chanukah comes sooner rather than later this year.

And, at this beautiful time of year as we move towards Chanukah and Christmas we need to all pray that good wins out over evil and do our part to make this world a better place one good act at a time.

Besos Bobbi
Ps... Going to leave you with a beautiful song that my son worked on to raise money for the victims of terror in Mumbai and to honor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7W6nQTc_L8h to watch the news and I wonder what i

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka were killed in that terrorist attack... their small child escaped helped by the babysitter who often took care of him and is still caring for him today in Israel.

Indian commandos and police were evacuating civilians and cordoning off the area apparently in preparation to storm the Chabad House in Mumbai India, where a rabbi, his wife and others were being held hostage, according to IBN, an Indian news agency.

Newscasters were calling it the "final assault" on the Nariman House, where Chabad headquarters are located adjacent to the Leopold Cafe, a major tourist center in Mumbai's Colaba area which was also attacked Wednesday night